Parking spaces the priority as Enniscorthy councillors say they ‘weren’t consulted’ on Murphy Floods plans

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

Councillors in the Enniscorthy district have been reminded that they “can’t have it all” as plans continue to develop a temporary 37 space car-park at the old Murphy Floods site in the town centre. At the June meeting of the district, Councillor Aidan Browne admitted he was a little “disillusioned” with the lack of details provided on the project.

Those details, included in the district’s monthly report, stated that “The development of the carparking at Murphy Floods commenced on Tuesday, May 13. The carpark will include pedestrian linkages to both the Main Street via a set of concrete steps and a pathway/ramp to the Dunnes Stores side.

"The area that is not under macadam will be suitably landscaped. Provision has been made for additional public lighting as mentioned by the members. Drainage has been put in place and kerbing will be laid next week to set out the parking.

"Top soiling the green spaces will then be carried out followed by the macadam and line marking works. Once completed this carpark should add 37 more carparking spaces for the town.”

Having discussed the contents of the car park and its possible public amenities in great depth at previous meetings, Cllr Browne felt he and his colleagues were being short-changed by those in charge of the project.

“You should have come back to us with more detail than this. I don’t see anything about the public realm area we agreed to put into it. We need to know about what’s happening with it,” he said.

Cllr Jackser Owens went a step further, arguing that the elected members were being excluded from the decision-making process.

“We weren’t consulted on this, and we’re supposed to be the people who make the decisions. No one came into us and said ‘let’s sit down here as elected members and discuss this’. We should be consulted on everything that’s happening,” he said.

However, director of services Carolyne Godkin was having none of it.

“You all pressed for as many car parking spaces as possible, you can’t have it all, there’s only a certain amount of space there,” she said. “With regards to public realm versus car park, the members agreed for a car park with some landscaping, not a public realm area within the car park. You have to make a choice, there’s only a certain amount of space. If you want to reduce the number of car parking spaces we can do that.”

"We do want the spaces,” replied Cllr Owens, “the issue is that we want to be informed what’s going on here.”

“It has been included in the reports and we’ve talked to the members several times about this,” said Ms Godkin.

With Cllr Browne asking what had happened to the additional lighting and landscaping on the site, Ms Godkin said Wexford County Council (WCC) had placed its trust in the engineer responsible for the works and the councillors should do the same.

“With all due respect, the engineer is not going to consult the members regarding the specifications of a fence,” she said.

“The engineers won’t take phone calls at 10 p.m. in the evening like we do,” argued Cllr Owens.

“If you receive queries about this direct them to the staff and they will respond. We have bigger problems than the size of the fencing in this car park,” said Ms Godkin.

It was left to Cllr Pat Kehoe to remind everyone in the meeting that this car park was good news for Enniscorthy regardless of what amenities it included.

“As a rural councillor I know that all the people in my area drive to Enniscorthy, and I would change my route into town if this car park was available,” he said. “It’s bringing you straight into the heart of the town. In terms of public realm, I’d prefer to see car parking spaces than benches with no one sitting on them. It’s going to be a great boost to the town.”